Inside the creaky old carriage.
I tightly wrapped my arms around Tia’s shoulders as she sat next to me.
Then Tia leaned against my shoulder and asked.
“Mom, where are we going?”
“Well, you’ve been uncomfortable because it took a long time to get to school, right?”
“Hmm? A little?”
“Then let’s move near the school. That way, you can sleep in a bit longer. You can also invite your friends over after school. Sounds good, right?”
“Hmm….”
I tried my best to speak hopefully.
But Tia just weakly nodded her head, seeming not very interested.
For now, we have enough money.
The 300 million I received from the duke has been untouched, and I have been diligently saving the salary I earned during that time.
I should have about 400 million by now.
Even if I wanted to splurge, I didn’t know how to spend money, so it piled up like this.
With this amount of money, we could live comfortably for ten years.
Since I got a full scholarship at St. Sophia, I don’t have to pay tuition.
I won’t just be doing nothing during that time, so there won’t be a shortage of money.
It’s okay.
There are no problems.
We can live well without the duke.
No, we must live well.
Because we need to show the duke, who will be watching us, that we are happy without him.
“….”
“….”
Silence returned to the carriage.
Despite the passing time, the anticipated words don’t come.
Tia is missing the words she should naturally say.
Why.
Tia no longer asks me why we had to leave.
And that’s understandable.
I spent all day yesterday avoiding that question because I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to explain it to Tia.
“Don’t you want to ask why we’re leaving?”
“Hmm…?”
But now, I’m ready.
After staying up all night contemplating how to explain it, I finally organized my thoughts.
I took a deep breath while smelling Tia’s hair and slowly parted my lips.
“To be honest, the duke was a really bad person.”
“If he’s a bad person, shouldn’t he be punished?”
“He should. But he’s been hiding it all this time, so he hasn’t been punished.”
“Is that why you’re disappointed, Mom…?”
“Yeah. I’m really disappointed.”
Disappointed.
It’s not an incorrect statement, but it’s a subtle expression.
The shock I received that night couldn’t just be described as disappointment or revulsion.
How foolish was I.
How much did he laugh at me as I was wounded and gradually leaned on the duke, fleeing to Dragania.
To that dragon, I was nothing more than a trivial toy, nothing more, nothing less.
Just like a human torments and kills a bug for amusement, the duke only saw me as an inferior being.
“Aren’t you going back?”
“I’m not going back. I will never meet the duke again. I don’t even plan on forgiving him.”
“If he did something wrong, shouldn’t he be punished? Won’t you give him a chance to be punished?”
“No.”
I have no intention of forgiving him or giving him a chance to reflect.
I don’t particularly feel like exposing all this and bringing down Dragania.
I simply want to erase the name Dragania from my life moving forward.
I don’t care what happens to the duke; I just want to never encounter him again.
“Do you hate him that much?”
“Yeah. A lot. Because of that person, how much my mom… how much…”
How much I was in pain.
I tried to say that but bit my tongue and swallowed it back.
That was not something I wanted to tell Tia.
I hope Tia doesn’t know how difficult and painful it was for me.
I only wish for Tia to grow up without knowing such dirty stories and to just smile innocently.
“Well then, I guess I shouldn’t say that I want to see the duke anymore…”
“Yeah. Please don’t say that. Hearing that would hurt my heart so much.”
“Hmm….”
Good kid.
I tightly hugged Tia and squeezed my eyes shut.
To Tia, the duke must still be a good person.
Just until last night, he was a kind person who played well with her.
Whatever he is, I don’t know, but telling Tia that he did something bad would just leave her confused.
Still, I was grateful that she was considerate and adapted to me.
“Later… later, I’ll tell you everything…”
Later.
When I completely overcome my trauma.
When I can talk about that time without feeling nauseous, I will tell Tia everything.
I will explain what the duke did to me.
That’s what I decided, and I relaxed my body.
We still had quite a long way to our destination.
I decided to take a nap, hoping to get some sleep that I couldn’t get the night before.
Even though my head still ached and the memories of that day flickered in my mind, holding Tia made me feel comfortable, and I thought I could fall asleep.
*
“I have quite a lot of luggage, huh?”
“Yeah…”
Thud.
Leopard set down a box full of luggage and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
I was worried he hadn’t brought anything as he ran away in a hurry.
Fortunately, Julia calmly packed her clothes and belongings that night and managed to escape.
“Where should I put this?”
“For now, bring it into the inside room. We can organize it slowly later.”
“Got it.”
Julia quickly found a house.
It was a small house in the suburbs.
Of course, “small” meant it was small compared to the mansions of nobles; it was spacious enough for the two of us to live comfortably.
“Thank you for helping with the move. Do you want to stay for a meal?”
“No, it’s fine.”
“The closest restaurant is an hour away. I already bought groceries on the way here, so I can cook quickly. Just sit and wait.”
“Then I’ll excuse myself…”
“Tia! Dinner will be ready soon! Come in!”
Julia smiled faintly and called Tia loudly.
Leopard reluctantly pretended to not be left behind and dragged a chair from the empty living room to sit at the table.
As Julia tied her apron and prepared the food, Leopard couldn’t take her eyes off Julia.
She continuously examined Julia’s face.
Her eyes were red, and her body was emaciated.
She looked like someone who had been starving for days.
It was hard to believe such a change happened overnight.
“Damn it…”
From Julia’s face, I couldn’t find the emotions I had been hoping for.
She had just been liberated from the wicked dragon’s grasp.
Even though Julia made an effort to look bright, it was clear that she was extremely subdued, and her condition was not good at all.
Leopard’s fists clenched tightly.
I did nothing wrong.
This is certainly the right thing to do.
Julia will soon overcome her shock and have a smiling face.
That’s what I decided.
“Ha ha ha!”
“…?”
At that moment, a tuft of fur brushed against Leopard’s leg, and he heard a panting sound.
Before long, a pack of foxes surrounded Leopard, looking up at him.
“Lea! Lea!”
“Oh, oh. Is that you, Tia?”
“There’s a bear in the back mountain! Do you want to go see it with me?”
“A bear…?”
“Hmm! The bear looked really happy to see me and sat down, trembling! I think it wants to play with me and Hekheki!”
“Let’s just let it be…”
It was a house located in a remote area where wild animals like bears would appear in the back mountain.
Even though it was a fairly nice house, the price was ridiculously cheap due to the occasional appearance of monsters.
However, for these two, that was no threat at all.
There was no need to set up a barrier that consumed an enormous amount of magical power every day.
To them, wild animals and monsters would only appear as cute little creatures.
“Tonight’s dinner will be soup and bread. I’m sorry it’s not luxurious.”
“No, I like anything you cook, Julia.”
“You’ve had enough of my cooking at the villa.”
“That’s not fully your cooking. You also had help from other maids. This is the first meal made solely by you.”
“What are you talking about…?”
As evening grew dim, the three of them gathered around the table lit by a lantern and began their meal.
The food laid out was modest, and the dishes were unattractive porcelain, and the chairs creaked.
But Leopard had no complaints.
Instead, he was just happy to be able to sit this close and eat with Tia and Julia.
“Tia finished eating! Can I go back to the back mountain to play? Huh? Huh?”
“Where do you think you’re going at this hour…?”
“Tia has good night vision, so it’ll be fine.”
“Leo…”
“If you’re really worried, should I go with you? I’ll make sure you don’t wander far.”
“That would be appreciated.”
“Well then, I’ll wait outside!”
Crash.
Tia, who had put on her shoes, dashed outside, making a loud noise.
Having come to a place so close to nature after living mostly in the city, she seemed excited.
Leopard hurriedly finished his meal while keeping Tia’s cute figure in his sight until she vanished.
“It seems a few monsters do come out, but it should be fine. The source of the monsters isn’t too close. You can relax…”
“That note. It was you, wasn’t it?”
“…”
But soon, the hand that reached for the bread froze.
Leopard set the bread down and faced Julia.
From her expression, it was hard to tell if she was resentful or grateful.
There was no reason to deny it, so Leopard slowly parted his lips.
“Yeah. It was me.”
“Then you knew from the start? The duke…”
“That the duke is a dragon? I knew that from the beginning. But I only found out later that he did terrible things to you.”
“I see…”
“I thought it would be better to show you than to tell you. So I called you out. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, oh no. You don’t have to apologize. I’m grateful.”
Julia replied with a slight smile, waving her hand dismissively.
It was an empty compliment.
It wasn’t a heartfelt expression of gratitude.
Noticing her change of expression, Leopard came to that conclusion.
‘What did I expect?’
Did I hope that Julia would shed grateful tears, thanking me for revealing the true nature of that man?
Leopard felt a slight disappointment in himself, loathing his own heart, and bit his lip.
This was something done for Julia.
He shouldn’t have such an expectation of recompense.
“Well… what about the duke?”
“Are you curious about that?”
“I am curious. I don’t know if he will come after me or just let me go.”
“Ah…”
Leopard regretted asking without thinking.
It was only natural to be concerned.
Julia must now be living in fear, trembling at the thought of the duke coming back and doing something horrific again.
“He won’t come after you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah. He will never come after you again.”
“I see. Since it’s you saying that, I guess I can rest easy.”
However, after having been choked by the furious duke, Leopard could assert it.
Disgustingly enough, the duke truly loved Julia.
Knowing that approaching Julia would hurt her, he would probably never go near her again.
“Julia…”
“Yeah?”
“Hang in there. I’ll be by your side. I’ll come often to play with Tia too.”
“That would be really great.”
“…”
Julia chuckled lightly.
Leopard gripped his fists even tighter, unaware that blood was oozing from his nails.
It turned out just as I wished.
Julia learned the truth about the duke, and I stood by Julia’s side.
But for some reason, a corner of Leopard’s heart remained uncomfortable.
Wow, I really hate this character, Leonhard, this character was really unnecessary, meddling with someone else life, ruining their future, without given much care how the other person thinking, selfish bitch, wow really this is character place among the top character I hate from a novel.